The Taye Diggs and Idina Menzel Split Means the Age of Rent Is Really Over

That sound you hear is our old Renthead hearts breaking. Idina Menzel and Taye Diggs have announced that they are splitting up, after ten years of marriage and about 18 years of knowing each other. The two met while working on the original production of Rent, that great ‘90s musical about AIDS, art, and Avenue B. They got married in 2003 and had a kid in 2009, but now, after all that, they’ve called it quits. Benny and Maureen, no longer a pair. Not that they were a couple in the show, that wasn’t a thing, but still. Wasn’t this always one of Rent’s sweetest creations, this longstanding couple? Probably not for most people. Not for people who think of Wicked and Private Practice when they hear these actors’ names. But those people just don’t get it. They don’t understand what it is to imagine Taye and Idina yelling “Take Me or Leave Me” at each other during some final fight, or staring up at the moon in separate places and whispering out “Without You.” This was our couple, us nerds shivering on the street at six in the morning waiting for rush tickets. They belonged to us! Sure you might say that’s crazy, that it’s absurd to assume we know anything about these strangers’ lives just because we liked a musical they were in a decade and a half ago, and you’d probably be right. But who cares about right when we’re talking about Rent. Oh Idina, oh Taye. What do we have left to hold onto? Does this mean those days are really done? Even when the marquee went dark and something new moved in, there was always this pair, some seemingly eternal holdover from a lost age. And now it’s over. All of it really gone. I guess we all grew up. [People]

Well, I guess this is a happy thing to focus on. The future! Mary-Kate Olsen, who has now circled the sun 27 times, would like to start having children. Specifically, she would like to start having children with her current main squeeze, 44-year-old half-brother of the former French president Olivier Sarkozy. This is according to some sort of “source” who whispered some things to Us Weekly, so who knows what the heck is really going on, but there are definite signs that the couple is getting serious. They live together in a $6.25 million townhouse on the island of Manhattan and she’s said to be very attentive to his already existing children. That sounds pretty domestic. According to this source, who could be anyone from Ashley Olsen to the ghost of Charles de Gaulle, Mary-Kate would “like to get pregnant but isn't so sure about marriage.” Aw come on, Mary-Kate! Get married too! Not for any reason other than that it would be funny to say “Remember the Olsen twins? Well, one of them is the sister-in-law of a guy who was president of France.” Wouldn’t that be a fun thing to say? It’d work anywhere, any time of day, at any sort of event. You could even say it to people you were sure already knew that fact, because it’s just nice to say, and to hear. “One of the Michelle Tanners is married to France’s brother.” “Hey did you know that a guy who ruled France for a while has a sister-in-law who was in Billboard Dad?” There are many ways to say it! But we can only say them if they get married. So here’s hoping they hurry up and do that and then they can worry about kids after. Or the other way around, it doesn’t matter. Just as long as we can someday soon say, “Lori Loughlin is only like three degrees of separation away from François Hollande.” Do it for us, Mary-Kate. Won’t you? [Us Weekly]

Speaking of babies, Kevin Federline, former husband of Britney Jean Spears, is pregnant with his sixth child. I mean, his wife, Victoria Prince, is pregnant. He is not pregnant. He can’t do that. He can sing “PopoZão,” but he can’t get pregnant. Anyway, that’s exciting for him. Six kids! For those counting, that’s two with Shar Jackson, two with Britney Spears, and now two with Victoria Prince. Just imagine those family barbecues. It’s weird to think that of the six siblings, two are very rich. Like, at reunions the rich siblings show up and everything gets kind of awkward. That’ll be great material for a play someday. Which is the only reason anyone should do anything. If it won’t be turned into a play at the Manhattan Theatre Club in twenty years, don't do it. [TMZ]

Uh oh! Dreadlocked Ralph Lauren model and alleged Lindsay Lohan dater Morgan O’Connor has been dragged into the whole Barron Hilton Star Island Surpise fiasco. In a tangential way, at least. According to Ray LeMoine, the guy who is accused of punching Hilton and thus starting this whole epic mess, O’Connor was one of the people renting the luxe Miami mansion where the incident went down, and he and his friend still owe about $6,500 for their share of the rent. LaMoine says that O’Connor and his buddy, a gentleman named Remington Levine who is the heir to the Family Dollar fortune (no names have been changed for the purposes of jokes, this is all real), showed up with lots of excuses for why they couldn’t pay right away (only had credit cards, didn’t have ID so they couldn’t go to the bank, etc.). And then when the Hilton thing happened and everyone got kicked out of the house, the boys disappeared without settling up. And they’re the ones who invited Hilton in the first place! LeMoine calls them “Upstanding kids.” Sarcastically, I’d have to imagine. They do not sound upstanding at all! Obviously this could all be some dumb ginned-up feud with no substance behind it, but I wouldn’t be that shocked if a young male model and his Family Dollar heir friend behaved rudely and didn’t hold up their end of a financial bargain. Like, if anyone was going to do that, it’s gonna be the 18-year-old major brand model and the kid who’s sitting on a pile of Family Dollar money. Whatever the case is, we can be sure of one thing: we’re never going to Star Island. [Page Six]